GE Announces Efficient Bulb (sort of)
Here at Sustainable Design Update Central Command (S-Duck), debate has been hot and heavy over GE's announcement of a High Efficiency Incandescent or HEI lamp. What GE announced with much fanfare is a light bulb that won't be on the market for several years, a light bulb that will be about half as efficient as a current generation compact fluorescent (CFL) lights.
While we applaud GE for working to reduce energy consumption, we are concerned that the effect of announcing a product that won't be available for several years is to reduce interest in the much more efficient compact fluorescent lights and LEDs. Many consumers will think “why should I change to those funny compact fluorescents when regular old bulbs will be just as good. The effect of GE announcing their HEI bulbs so many years ahead of production is to cut interest in CFLs.
GE proposes to introduce a High Efficiency Incandescent bulb “Over the next several years that will achieve 30 lumens per watt [1]. While this is a great improvement over the terrible performance of the current GE bulbs, it is only half as efficient as a current CFL. Moreover it is only one quarter as efficient as some LED lights.
[1] Lumens per watt is like miles per gallon. The bigger the number the better.
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